


The Chains We Were Born Into

by beckettemory



Category: Leverage
Genre: Archie Leach is a Bad Father, Brother-Sister Relationships, Doctors & Physicians, Gen, Past Child Abuse, Platonic Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-22
Updated: 2018-01-22
Packaged: 2019-03-08 07:29:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13453389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beckettemory/pseuds/beckettemory
Summary: Parker has never had an x-ray. She has never been prescribed antibiotics. She has never been hospitalized.And, it turns out, she's never been to the doctor, let alone gotten vaccinated.





	The Chains We Were Born Into

**Author's Note:**

> something something breaking free of toxic attitudes and beliefs and actions you've held true and right your entire life and heading towards healing 
> 
> warnings for: discussions of vaccines throughout, past medical neglect, past child abuse, mildly coercive medical treatment, alleged killing of one's parents (but that one's canon)

“Okay, okay, fine,” Nate said, shooing Sophie away from the couch where he was going to sit and she’d blocked his access. “I will tomorrow.”

“Promise?” Sophie asked, raising an eyebrow disbelievingly.

“Yeah, yeah, I promise,” Nate said, and Sophie stepped to the side to allow him to pass.

Hardison looked up from his computer, apparently just starting to pay attention. “What promise?”

Nate sighed as he sat heavily on the sofa. “I haven’t gotten a flu shot yet this year,” he explained, sounding exasperated.

Hardison shrugged. “Me either,” he said, and Sophie scoffed. “What?” he asked defensively.

“You get the flu during a job, you ruin everything,” Eliot called from halfway up the loft’s spiral staircase and Nate jumped, not having seen him lurking there.

“Then I won’t get the flu,” Hardison said simply.

“You can go with Nate tomorrow,” Sophie said, her tone indicating there was no arguing with her. “My great auntie died in the Spanish flu of 1918.”

“Aw, come on,” Hardison groaned, but didn’t try to protest further.

Sophie turned to Eliot. “You’ve gotten yours?”

“Sure did,” he replied.

“Parker?” Sophie called, a little louder, looking around for the thief.

“What?” Parker asked from right behind Sophie, making her jump. How the hell had she gotten there?

“Have you gotten your flu shot?” Sophie asked.

Parker scoffed and laughed. “No,” she said. “I don’t get sick.”

“Yeah you do,” Eliot retorted. “I’ve taken care of you when you were sick, like, three times.”

“That doesn’t count,” Parker said, but didn’t explain why, just wormed her way around Sophie to flop onto the couch next to Nate.

“When’s the last time you got a flu shot, Park?” Eliot asked, standing and coming down the stairs to cross his arms like a stern older brother.

Parker laughed. “Never,” she said.

“Yeah, you’re going with Nate and Hardison,” Eliot said and turned around, intending on starting dinner.

“Nooooo,” Parker groaned.

“Ha!” Hardison laughed at the same time.

“I’ve never gotten any shots and I don’t get sick,” Parker whined.

Eliot stopped dead and turned around. Sophie dropped her crossed arms in disbelief.

“Never?” Sophie asked.

Parker shook her head, looking baffled at the question.

“Surely you got your childhood shots,” Nate said with a little chuckle.

“Mmmnope,” Parker said.

Eliot joined Sophie in front of the couch. “How’d you manage that?”

“My mom didn’t believe in vaccines. She thought they caused autism, but look at me now,” Parker said with a laugh.

“How’d you go to school, then?” Hardison asked, getting up from his computer.  

Parker shrugged. “She lied on the enrolment records. The school believed her and then all my foster homes did too.”

“I’m sure Archie--” Nate started.

“Archie only paid attention to me when I was breaking the law,” Parker interrupted.

“So you’ve never had an MMR,” Eliot deadpanned, and Parker shook her head.

“DTaP?” Hardison asked.

“I don’t know what that is, but no,” Parker said.

“Polio?” Nate asked.

Parker scoffed. “No one gets that anymore.”

 _“Tetanus?”_ Sophie asked, and Hardison gasped even before Parker could shake her head.

“She’s never had a tetanus shot,” he said.

“No!” Parker said, getting annoyed. “No, no vaccines, not ever.” She stood up and stomped to the stairs.

Eliot blocked her way with his arm braced across the banister. “No heists ‘til you get your shots,” he said, fixing her with a stare.

Parker scowled and headed for the front door instead. Hardison stepped around and crossed his arms.

“Leave me alone,” she growled.

“There’s a measles outbreak, Parker,” Nate said calmly.

Parker shoved her way past Hardison.

“Park, wait,” Eliot called, and Parker hesitated, her hand on the doorknob, but didn’t turn around. “I’ll make the appointment an’ explain everything an’ go with you, you just gotta show up and get ‘em.”

They saw her shoulders rise and fall with a heavy sigh.

“Fine,” she spat, and then she was gone.

There was a long silence after she left, the remaining four looking around at each other with varying degrees of concern and exasperation.

Finally Nate shoved himself up from the couch and headed for the spiral staircase.

“Nate,” Sophie said, and Nate stopped two steps up. “No heists until you get a flu shot.”

“Oh, don’t start, I already said yes,” Nate said tiredly, not turning around.

 

* * *

 

Parker squirmed in the waiting room chair and picked at a loose thread coming off a split in the knee of her jeans.

“Maybe they forgot about me,” she said suddenly.

“They didn’t,” Eliot said, his eyes never straying from the CNN feed on the television.

“We should try again some other day, when they’re not as busy,” Parker said.

Eliot looked around at the empty waiting room and then sighed. “You gotta do this, Park,” he said quietly.

Parker squirmed again, pulling her feet up onto the seat so she could hug her knees. “Make me,” she said petulantly.

“You don’t want me to make you,” Eliot said. “An’ I ain’t gonna bribe you. You’re a grownup.”

Parker stayed quiet, but glared daggers at the side of Eliot’s head.

“You want me to go in with you?” Eliot asked quietly.

Parker sighed. “Yes,” she said.

She stayed quiet, fidgeting with her hair and shirt, until a door opened and a nurse said, “Alice?”

Eliot stood and looked at Parker, who was frowning up at him.

“That’s you,” Eliot reminded her.

Parker blinked and stood. “Right.”

“Who’s this?” the nurse asked Parker, eyeing Eliot.

“My brother,” Parker said. “Adam.”

“She didn’t wanna come alone,” Eliot said.

The nurse scrutinized Eliot, then nodded and led Parker back into the office.

Eliot waited awkwardly as Parker was weighed and measured, looking confused and annoyed the whole time. Finally the nurse led them into an exam room and gestured for Parker to sit on the paper-covered table.

“Dr. Bates will be in in a few,” she said, and left.

“Why am I sitting on paper?” Parker asked at a whisper.

Eliot frowned at her. “What?”

“Why am I sitting on paper?” she repeated.

“To… keep it clean for other patients?” Eliot explained.

“I don’t like it,” Parker said, squirming and making the paper crinkle loudly.

Eliot narrowed his eyes at her. He had a growing suspicion that he hoped to God wasn’t true. “When’s the last time you went to a doctor, Park?”

Parker shrugged. “I don’t remember.”

“Have you _ever_ been to a doctor?”

Parker frowned in thought. “Not sure,” she said after a long pause.

Eliot stared at her. “Your childhood was fucked up,” he said.

Parker shook her head. “I had a normal childhood,” she said, apparently completely seriously.

Eliot groaned. “Park, most people don’t feel the need to blow up their parents.”

“They were my _foster_ parents,” Parker corrected.

“Still. And _most_ children go to the doctor when they’re sick.”

“I never got sick. Well, except the time my foster dad locked me in the shed for three days and I got pneumonia,” Parker said casually.

Eliot stared. “And you went to the doctor for it?” he asked hopefully.

Parker laughed. “You don’t go to the doctor for pneumonia,” she said, looking like Eliot was an idiot.

Eliot sighed. He’d been down this path with her before and didn’t have the energy to do it again.

“Trust me, Park,” he said, “you didn’t have a normal childhood. _I_ didn’t even have a normal childhood.”

“What are your standards for ‘normal’?” she asked.

Eliot thought for a long moment. “Maggie, probably,” he said.

Parker blinked. “Oh. Then you’re right. I didn’t have a normal childhood.”

The door opened and an older man with a kind face came in. “Hello!” he said cheerfully. “Alice?” he asked, sticking out his hand towards Parker.

“That’s what they call me,” Parker said, and Eliot shot her a disapproving look.

“Nice to meet you, I’m John Bates,” the doctor said. He shook Eliot’s hand as well. “Husband?” he asked cautiously.

“Brother,” Eliot corrected, and Dr. Bates chuckled.

“One of these days I’m going to get it right,” he said. “Nice to meet you…?”

“Adam,” Eliot said, using the name Parker had picked for him.

“Adam. So!” Dr. Bates said, sitting on a rolling stool near the computer and squinting at the screen. “You’re here for… _all_ of your vaccinations?” he asked, his voice turning dumbfounded as he scrolled through whatever was on the screen.

“Our parents didn’t believe in ‘em,” Eliot explained. “I finally talked Alice into it.”

Dr. Bates eyed him. “Do you need yours, too?”

“I got mine, don’t worry,” Eliot said.

Dr. Bates nodded. “Alright then, let’s see… Alice, do you smoke?”

“No.”

“Drink?”

“Yes.”

“How much?”

Parker shrugged. “Some. Not often.”

“Are you sexually active?”

Parker scoffed. “No.”

Dr. Bates clicked around for a moment. “I don’t seem to have any of your records here…”

“I don’t have any,” Parker said, and Dr. Bates looked up at her in surprise.

Eliot sighed and explained a lie he’d been cooking up. “My sister recently got out of a bad situation and they didn’t let her have medical access.”

The doctor looked truly sad to hear that. “My apologies,” he said, “but congratulations on getting out.”

Parker attempted to rearrange her face into something approaching sincere grief. “It’s been tough.”

Dr. Bates turned away from the computer and put his elbows on his knees. “Would you like me to refer you to a mental health professional?”

“I’m okay,” Parker said, a little too quickly.

“We’re already working on it,” Eliot said.

Dr. Bates nodded slowly, and turned back to the computer. “Alright, then let’s keep going here. Are you pregnant or trying to become pregnant?”

Parker snorted. “No,” she said with a little snicker.

“What field do you work in?”

Parker considered her words carefully. “Security consultation,” she said, and shot a surreptitious grin at Eliot, who rolled his eyes.

“Have you had chicken pox?”

“Nope,” Parker said.

“Have you had the flu recently?”

“How recently?” Eliot asked.

“Two, three years.”

“Yeah,” Parker said. “Two years ago.”

“Did you have any childhood illnesses? Measles, rubella, whooping cough, scarlet fever…?” Dr. Bates listed.

“I had pneumonia once,” Parker said. “None of the others, I don’t think.”

“Do you travel overseas?”

Parker laughed. “Yeah, a lot.”

“Alright then…” Dr. Bates started poking at the screen and counting silently. “Looks like... eight vaccines today, and then you need to come back for second doses of five of them in a month or two, and then four more in six months to a year.”

Parker blinked at him, then looked at Eliot, quietly panicking.

“I know, it’s a lot,” Dr. Bates said kindly. “If you’d like, we can split them up and do four today and four tomorrow.”

Parker took a deep breath and shook her head. “Let’s get it over with.”

Dr. Bates smiled. “I’ll go get everything ready.”

He left, and Parker made a face at Eliot.

“This is your fault,” she said, her voice like ice.

Eliot shrugged casually. “I’m alright with that.”

“You probably didn’t even _get_ yours, and this is payback for hitting you with the car in San Jose,” she said.

Eliot narrowed his eyes. She had said Hardison was driving in San Jose.

No, the vaccines weren’t the payback. _This_ was.

“I wonder if he’ll put the shots in your arm or your butt,” Eliot said.

Parker narrowed her eyes right back. “They don’t put shots in your butt,” she said.

“How would you know?” Eliot asked pointedly. “Some shots you do get in the butt. Wonder if you’re getting any of those today.”

Parker opened and closed her mouth several times, then scowled and glared at the closed door.

A few minutes passed before Dr. Bates opened the door, but Parker was still glaring at it.

“Alright--”

“Are any of the shots going in my butt?” Parker interrupted.

Dr. Bates stopped in surprise, processed her question, and then came all the way through the door and closed it. “Not this time, unless you’d prefer that.”  

Eliot snickered and Parker reached over to swat him.

“El-- _Adam_ said they were going in my butt, but I _knew_ he was lying,” she said.

Dr. Bates smiled as he looked between them. “My brothers did the same thing when I was young. No, some vaccines go in the gluteus muscle, but none of these have to.”

Parker scowled.

“Roll up your sleeves, please,” Dr. Bates said as he began prepping the syringes.

Parker took all eight vaccines with little reaction except the first one, when she squeaked in surprise and clapped a hand over her mouth. The rest she winced through, but didn’t panic.

Eliot watched her like a hawk the entire time, though, just in case she started struggling. Parker struggling could be dangerous for anyone involved, and he liked Bates.

By the time Dr. Bates was finished Parker had eight bandaids covering both of her upper arms and looked tired and pale.

“You’ll be sore for a couple of days, so take it easy,” Dr. Bates advised.

Parker started to complain and Eliot swatted her knee lightly. “She will,” Eliot said.

Dr. Bates chuckled. “Then you’re free to go. Make sure to stop by the front desk and get appointments for your second and third dose courses.”

“Thank you,” Eliot said, and shook his hand.

“And Alice,” Dr. Bates said, and Parker looked up at him tiredly. “I’d like you to come in for a full workup at some point,” he said. “Just in case, and so we have more records for you. But you don’t have to do that now.”

“Okay,” Parker said quietly.

Dr. Bates smiled encouragingly. “It was nice to meet you two. I’ll see you again in a month or so.”

Parker headed out to the car while Eliot made her next appointments, and when he slid into the driver’s seat she was staring out the window, absentmindedly running the cuff of her sleeve between her fingers. Eliot started the car and started driving back to the loft, letting her talk if she wanted to.

“Was my childhood really that weird?” Parker asked.

Eliot sighed. “Yeah, Park.”

“So weird you had to lie about it?”

“Listen, I’m sorry I did,” Eliot said. “It was partly to keep our covers, and partly because… well… yeah. You had a shit childhood. I didn’t wanna drag you back through thinking about it if you didn’t hafta.”

Parker stayed quiet for a long time, long enough that Eliot was pulling into a parking space a couple blocks from the loft before she spoke again.

“You’re a good brother,” she said, so quietly that he wasn’t sure he heard her at first.

“Yep,” he said lightly. “I try.”

“How long are my arms gonna hurt?”

Eliot smiled. “Coupla’ days. Come on, let’s get ice cream before we have to be at the briefing.”


End file.
